Eastern vs Northeast halted at 2:31 Remaining in First Half – Wyatt Smith Reporting

In the opening game of the 2019 season, Mother Nature was the victor when she put on an astounding lightning show and dropped buckets of rain at Northeast High School in Greensboro on Friday night. The game between the Northeast Guilford Rams and the Eastern Guilford Wildcats was halted with two and a half minutes to play in the first half.

The 22 minutes of play went like this: The Wildcats won the opening coin toss and deferred to the second half. In his first official game at Eastern Guilford, head coach Tony Aguilar called an onside kick on the opening kickoff. However, it was recovered by the Rams and they took over at their own 46-yard line.

Things didn’t go well for the Rams on their opening drive. After a Clayton Patterson pass was nullified because of a holding call, the Rams quarterback threw an interception, ending their threat.

The interception gave the Wildcats the ball on their own 40-yard line. Northeast’s defense held Eastern to three-and-out, but Aguilar had another trick up his sleeve. He called a fake punt that resulted in a 28-yard pass from D’Jay Mobley to Damon Coleman and that gave the Wildcats a first down. On the following play, Kamell Smith connected with Christian Smitherman for a 25-yard touchdown. The extra point attempt was good, and Eastern led 7-0 with 6:41 remaining in the first quarter.

The Rams struggled to maintain control of the ball throughout the 22 minutes of the game, fumbling twice. Both fumbles were recovered by Trevon Hester to avoid turnovers. However, the turnover bug struck the Rams again in the second quarter when the Rams were threatening and Patterson threw another interception.

Eastern also had a turnover in the second quarter, a fumble by Coleman that was recovered by Northeast’s Zeke Nicholson. The Rams couldn’t capitalize on the turnover, however, and went three-and-out after getting the ball back.

The game was called with the Rams on the Eastern 21-yard line with first-and-10 after a great punt return by Nicholson with 2:31 to play in the first half.

With lightning apparent in the western sky, the game was called, and  will resume on Monday, August 26th , at 6:30pm. If you attended Friday night’s game, ticket stubs from Friday night will be honored for admission on Monday.

 

EASTERN GUILFORD STATS:

Kamell Smith: (6-8) 47yds, TD; 3rush, 4yds

Christian Smitherman: 1 rec, 25yds, TD

Hezekia Newby: 4 rush, 10yds

Damon Coleman: 1 rec, 2yds; DEF INT

Darian Harris: DEF INT

 

NORTHEAST GUILFORD STATS:

Trevon Hester: 11 rush, 32yds

Clayton Patterson: (2-8) 18yds, 2INT